 |
|
Ceasefire didn’t see BJP through NC men harassed, Governor’s help sought 3 J&K Assembly seats fall vacant |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
3 Hizb militants
killed IOC starts LPG supply to Ladakh Poonch students visit Uttaranchal Thirtyfive students of Poonch district, who were sponsored by the Army for a month-long tour to Uttaranchal, have returned. Major-Gen Mandhata Singh, officiating GOC Nagrota Corps, received the students here last evening. Srinagar, May 15 Spurning overtures of hardline leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads the breakaway faction of the Hurriyat, Jamaat-e-Islami, yesterday said that the organisation would not extend support to his group for the time being. Boards with martyrs’ names
on display The Army today displayed “boards of remembrance”, containing the names of 470 soldiers who laid down their lives during various operations in 2004. 
|
|
Ceasefire didn’t see BJP through Jammu, May 15 The BJP throughout the campaign tried to encash on the peace initiative but it failed to muster enough support in the segments that were most benefited due to the ceasefire. The Congress candidate, Mr Madan Lal Sharma, has led in most of the segments. Almost all segments along the Indo-Pakistan border were affected due to indiscriminate firing by Pakistani troops but peace was restored in November. Farmers could plough their fields right up to the zero line. Ranbirsinghpura, Suchetgarh, Akhnoor, Chhamb, Darhal, Rajouri, Kalakote, Surankot, Mendhar and Poonch are the border segments where Dr Nirmal Singh, state BJP chief, has trailed. Most of these segments are also terrorist-infested and encounters between troops and ultras are a regular feature here. The BJP candidate, Mr Sonam Palzor, polled only 761 votes in the Kargil segment of the Ladakh constituency. In the neighbouring segment of Zanskar, Mr Palzor got only 183 of the total number of 15,794 valid votes. The election has established the leadership of Mr Omar Abdullah, president of the National Conference (NC), in Kashmir where the party has won two of the total three seats. This has boosted the morale of NC activists who were seeing no hope after the party’s defeat in the last Assembly elections. The CPM candidate, Mr Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, who is supporting the coalition government but chose to contest against Ms Mehbooba Mufti in the Anantnag constituency, bagged only 12.29 per cent of votes as against 49.55 of Ms Mufti. Dr Mehboob Beig of the NC got 23.63 per cent votes. The NC candidate, Mr Abdul Rashid Shaheen, who has retained the prestigious Baramula seat, led in nine of the 15 segments. He maintained his lead in the border segment of Uri where about a dozen persons were killed in a terrorist attack on a rally that was being addressed by Ms Mufti in favour of PDP candidate, Nizamuddin Bhat. The coalition partners, the PDP and the Congress had locked their horns in Baramula. However, Mr Ghulam Rasool Kar (Congress) got a marginal lead only in his home segment of Sopore. The Minister of State for Defence, Mr Chaman Lal Gupta, saw a humiliating defeat in the Udhampur constituency at the hands of Mr Lal Singh (Congress) where he got a lead in only five of the 17 segments. Mr Lal Singh maintained his lead in 11 segments, including Udhampur and Reasi, known as the fortress of the BJP. Another rebel of the ruling coalition, Mr Bhim Singh, chairman of the Panthers Party, got a drubbing in the Udhampur constituency where he was unable to get a lead even in his home constituency of Chenani. The only place where he got a lead over other candidates was in the Ramnagar segment that is represented by Mr Harshdev Singh, Education Minister, who belongs to the Panthers Party. |
|
NC men harassed, Governor’s help sought
Srinagar, May 15 “We are distressed at having to bring to your notice that certain PDP ministers have unleashed a reign of terror and are indulging in acts of violence against the National Conference Workers across the valley, particularly areas which have voted in favour of the party during the just-concluded parliamentary elections,” Dr Abdullah said in a memorandum submitted to Mr Sinha. The former Chief Minister alleged that Minister of State Javed Mustafa Mir aided by the police beat NC workers at Doonawari and Dadompora in district Budgam yesterday. In the night, the minister forcibly entered the house of NC supporters and dragged them out and arrested a few of them after beating them, Dr Abdullah claimed. He also claimed that at several other places in the Ganderbal area of Srinagar district, PDP workers thrashed NC workers but the police was a mute spectator to the incidents. These incidents had been brought to the notice of the Director-General of Police but the state government had failed to provide security to these people, he alleged and sought Mr Sinha’s intervention in the matter.
— PTI |
|
Srinagar, May 15 “I don’t think the change of government would affect the talks between the Government of India and the Hurriyat Conference,” Ansari said after chairing a joint meeting of the executive committee, the general council and working committee of the amalgam. He said the Hurriyat was willing to continue the talks with the Centre, provided the new dispensation invited them. The Hurriyat chairman, who along with other executive members of the amalgam held two rounds of talks with the then Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani in January and March this year, said there was no other way to resolve the Kashmir issue other than a dialogue. Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) today asked other separatist groups to join the talks to end the “sufferings and miseries” of the people of the state. “We appeal to other factions also to join the talks to end the sufferings and miseries of the people of the state,” JKPCC spokesperson Muzaffar Parray told reporters here. Asked if the third round of the Centre-Hurriyat talks scheduled in June would go ahead, he said the Congress was in the process of chalking out a common minimum programme and “I am sure it will be included in that. Whether the third round will be held in June or shifted to a later date, that is yet to be decided.
— PTI |
|
|
3 J&K Assembly seats fall vacant Jammu, May 15 The three seats that may witness fresh elections in less than two years are Pahalgam in Kashmir and Basholi and Akhnoor in the Jammu region. Ms Mehbooba Mufti, who was elected to the state Assembly from Pahalgam seat, has won the Lok Sabha poll from Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency. The sitting MLA from Basholi, Mr Lal Singh, has been elected to the Lok Sabha from the Udhampur seat and Mr Madan Lal Sharma, MLA from Akhnoor, has bagged the Jammu Lok Sabha seat. |
|
3 Hizb
militants killed Jammu, May 15 Those killed have been identified as Niaz Ahmed Moulvi, Yaseer and Shabir Wani. All three belonged to the Hizbul Mujaheedin outfit. The Army had encircled the village following radio intercepts that the terrorists were planning to kill those who voted. Intercepts during the election revealed that Moulvi, who was an expert in fabricating IEDs, had planned to carry out suicide attack during the elections, but could not succeed due to large-scale presence of security forces in Doda district. Earlier efforts of the security forces to eliminate him did not succeed. A Pakistan-made 120mm mortar bomb was this morning recovered from a field in R.S. Pura sub-sector of Jammu. The mortar was found lying in the field by Tilak Raj of border village Pindi, at 7.30 am, according to a BSF spokesman. The
spokesman said security forces had defused the bomb believed to be
fired by Pakistani Rangers before the ceasefire came into existence in
November last year. Srinagar: Security forces averted a major tragedy when they detected an IED weighing 2.5 kg, in a passenger bus during a routine search in Srinagar on Friday evening, an official spokesman said. Unidentified militants entered the house of a village head, Sonaullah Ganai, at Bazipora in the Sumbal area of North Kashmir on Friday night and abducted him. Later, the gunmen shot him dead in a nearby house, he said. Militants then entered another house in the same village and shot dead Abdul Rashid Bhat and his wife Saleema. Militants shot at and injured Mohammad Maqbool Naikoo, another village head at Batgund-duroo in South Kashmir district of Anantnag. Militants also shot dead a surrendered militant, Ali Mohammad Wani, at Magam in central Kashmir district of Badgam on Friday evening, the spokesman said. Militants
abducted 60-year-old Daya Ram from his Nashala house in Doda district
and shot him dead. |
|
IOC starts LPG supply to Ladakh Jammu, May 15 The first consignment of five LPG tankers was flagged off by Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma at the IOC’s bottling plant at Bari Brahmna here today. The Deputy CM asked the management of the corporation to ensure sufficient stock of LPG in the region at the earliest as it remained cut off from rest of the country for more than six months a year. He lauded the IOC for setting up a bottling plant at Leh for advance stocking of LPG. The plant, with a capacity of 1500 cylinders, would be functional from this season, he said. IOC Area Manager, Alok Upadai said that the corporation would be sending ten tankers of LPG daily to Leh where the annual requirement was of the order of 3,500 tons. He ruled out shortage of LPG in Ladakh as the IOC had built up sufficient stocks there before the closure of the Highway in October last. The Jammu plant which supplies LPG to Leh was set up in 2002 with a budget of Rs 32 crore. And has the capacity of filling 9,000 cylinders per day, he said. The deputy CM presented a memento to Deputy Plant Manager Ajay Kumar Wazir in recognition of his performance. — PTI |
|
|
Poonch students visit Uttaranchal Jammu, May 15 Major-Gen Mandhata Singh, officiating GOC Nagrota Corps, received the students here last evening. During their stay in Uttaranchal, the students were taken to places of scenic beauty and of historical importance. They also met the Governor of Uttaranchal, Mr Sudarshan Agarwal. The Army announced a seat in the sports company for the student who performed well in sports in Poonch. The RIMC (Dehra Dun) Principal announced scholarship for a child from the district who secured admission to the college and the Governor announced senior school and pre-university level scholarships of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 to outstanding students from Poonch district.
— PTI |
|
Jamaat not to back Geelani Srinagar, May 15 “The JEI has decided to adhere to its majlis-e-shoura (advisory council) decision of December that the organisation will not extend support to the Geelani-led Hurriyat Conference for the time being,” spokesman for the organisation Zahid Ali said in a statement here. — PTI |
|
|
Boards with
martyrs’ names on display Jammu, May 15 The names of these martyrs have been written on 12 boards and are being sent all over the country for the public to pay homage to the soldiers. The boards were displayed at Dhruva Auditorium at Udhampur. A constant stream of people was seen visiting the auditorium. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
